- Are drivers really that important?
Yes.
1A. Wouldn't it be somewhat of a benefit running it without a driver,
No.
1B. Even if life is reduced a bit
How about a lot?
Can anyone help explain why these numbers aren't adding up?
LEDs are non linear devices they don't add up like simple linear loads. You can't put LEDs directly in parallel because they will not share the current. This is because the voltage drop is not identical on each LED even of the same type.